About ----- The theme for this Ludum Dare was "10 Seconds". My interpretation of the theme was to have a game which consists of 3 separate subgames, and player control switches between them every 10 seconds. Items collected in one subgame may be used (rightfully or wrongfully) in another subgame. Meanwhile, the player is plagued by ghosts, and must avoid them at all costs. Since death in one subgame means death in them all.
The switching makes the game both interesting and challenging, as you have to remember both what you were doing, and where the dangers lurk. And iIt can take a couple of seconds after switching to get your bearings again. It is quite challenging trying to plan ahead, to avoid running head into trouble when the game switches back.
I hope you enjoy playing my game, as I've certainly enjoyed making it :D
Controls -------- Descriptions of the controls are available in game. Cursor Keys = Move // Control = Shoot // Escape = Quit
Updates ------- 26/08: Fixed what I believe to be the cause of the terrible lag experienced by some users. 26/08: Fixed an issue where some doors (at random) fail to open correctly, leading to the game being unwinnable. 26/08: Fixed a non-terminating loop which occurs when the player wins the game, causing the game to hang.
This will probably do well, and I think it has merit, despite a number of irksome flaws: * Having both the platformer red key and the Gauntlet red key makes one or the other unwinnable. * Gauntlet area is overly dangerous and enemy-infested compared to other areas. * Gauntlet area preserves some of the original game's tense health sinks (rapid-spawning enemies) which feel badly misplaced in a one-hit-kill game like this. * Reaching the locked doors in the wrong order makes the game very tedious. * Other than providing invincibility in the platformer, the Pac-Man segment has no real purpose other than increasing score in an unrewarding fashion. (Had it provided invincibility to the Gauntlet area instead, where enemies are prolific, I'd find it much more interesting.) * No checkpoints!!
The game looks great, and promises a great fun, so I'm looking forward to playing it. Unfortunately, it's unplayable for me at the moment. The game lags terribly on my machine (a Win7-x64-based laptop), I have barely been able to reach the first coin :S
(Oh, I opened the source folder out of curiosity to take a look at the code and it was empty)
Stylish and fun. Gauntlet portion was definitely the funnest. Unfortunately on my best run, I used up the gold key and got myself stuck indefinitely and wasn't able to finish the game.
Some additional things after beating it. It seems like a lot of my deaths were from a bug where you can't open locked doors in Gauntlet-mode. You keep trying and trying, and sometimes works, unfortunately by that time, the ghosts are ready to insta-kill you. That, and to beat the game, you need a very specific order of unlocking things in each mode, which can be frustrating since you have to play the game over and over to find that out. Again, still love the game though, enough to beat it, and comment twice :)
Really, really wanted to play this (got impression from the feedback that it is awesome, and it just looks great, with the aesthetic reminding me of VVVVVV), BUT, it crashes every time I press UP arrow with a divide by zero error :S
I'm running on Windows 7, x64 if I'm not mistaken...
I'm happy to see that the wait was totally worth it. The combination of the 10s countdown with the three different gameplay mechanics works beautifully. And great polish, too. I love the retro art style.
One of the best entries I've played so far. Great job!
Nice retro style, everything is smooth and well responding! Personally, I would have rather played those games one at a time but you had to find some way to implement the theme.
One of the most professional and polished entries I've played so far in this LD. Great concept, nice retro style (makes me nostalgic for "Gauntlet"), and excellent graphics and sound.
Unfortunately, it's also very hard. I still haven't beaten it, though I intend to get back to it at some point. This in itself isn't a flaw. A bigger problem is that there's quite a bit of difference in difficulty between the different worlds: the "Pacman" world is so easy you almost have to try to get killed, whereas the Metroidvania platformer is a lot harder.
Still, that's about my one nitpick about this game. Congratulations on a very good entry!
excellent game. very hard, but fun. thanks! the platforming is the most annoying and hard as there is no way to defend yourself from that single ghost. lol not that that's bad, i the blue and orange levels were getting intense! Once i managed to control the red level the others got much harder. (i died on pac man)
Comments41
Needs some time to get in though...
* Having both the platformer red key and the Gauntlet red key makes one or the other unwinnable.
* Gauntlet area is overly dangerous and enemy-infested compared to other areas.
* Gauntlet area preserves some of the original game's tense health sinks (rapid-spawning enemies) which feel badly misplaced in a one-hit-kill game like this.
* Reaching the locked doors in the wrong order makes the game very tedious.
* Other than providing invincibility in the platformer, the Pac-Man segment has no real purpose other than increasing score in an unrewarding fashion. (Had it provided invincibility to the Gauntlet area instead, where enemies are prolific, I'd find it much more interesting.)
* No checkpoints!!
These are my feedback bullets.
(Oh, I opened the source folder out of curiosity to take a look at the code and it was empty)
I liked the game apart from that and I think it have a nice take on the theme.
Too bad it hangs when you complete it.
I'm running on Windows 7, x64 if I'm not mistaken...
I'm happy to see that the wait was totally worth it. The combination of the 10s countdown with the three different gameplay mechanics works beautifully. And great polish, too. I love the retro art style.
One of the best entries I've played so far. Great job!
The "source" folder in your ZIP-file is empty, BTW.
Good job!
The combination of the different types is great. Music fits really well too :). Also love the sinning-coin faux-3d-effect
I got stuck in the red-wall-room with the red key. I didn't open the re wadll on the first try, and afterwards I couldn't open it either.
Really like game switching every 10 seconds and the stylish graphics. The game plays smooth on my computer.
Also using the cherry with spacebar(removes nearby enemies) is not listed in any of the controls, I learned about it by accident.
Unfortunately, it's also very hard. I still haven't beaten it, though I intend to get back to it at some point. This in itself isn't a flaw. A bigger problem is that there's quite a bit of difference in difficulty between the different worlds: the "Pacman" world is so easy you almost have to try to get killed, whereas the Metroidvania platformer is a lot harder.
Still, that's about my one nitpick about this game. Congratulations on a very good entry!